Tennessee Inmate Christa Pike Conscious and Speaking Six Days After Surviving Botched Execution

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee death-row inmate Christa Pike is conscious and speaking six days after she survived the state’s attempt to execute her by lethal injection, her attorneys said in a statement on Tuesday.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of the sedative pentobarbital during the execution attempt on the night of Sept. 30 at Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville and has been hospitalized since, according to Reuters. Her attorneys said she remains under critical medical care, is still handcuffed and shackled to her hospital bed despite severe damage to her arms, and faces a long recovery whose outcome remains unclear, according to CNN.

Pike was sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of her 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer and was set to become the first woman executed in Tennessee in 200 years, according to CNN. After the two doses failed to kill her, she was taken to a hospital, where she was unconscious and placed on a ventilator for several days.

What witnesses and lawyers say went wrong

According to Pike’s attorneys, the execution team struggled for about an hour to place intravenous lines, using at least seven needles, after the lawyers had warned the state about her history of difficult vein access. Attorney Randy Spivey told reporters that Pike cooperated with the team and even pointed out where to try inserting the IV, according to CNN. Her lawyers said they believe problems with the IV lines caused the drug to flow into her body rather than her bloodstream.

Catherine Sweeney, a WPLN reporter who witnessed the procedure, described it as unlike any execution she had covered before, according to CNN. The Tennessee Department of Correction said it followed its lethal-injection protocol, which uses pentobarbital and allows a backup dose if the inmate is still alive; the protocol does not address what happens if the second dose also fails, according to CNN.

State pauses executions as court fight begins

The failed execution has set off a broader reckoning in Tennessee. Governor Bill Lee has halted the state’s next scheduled execution and ordered an independent review led by former U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton, and Correction Commissioner Frank Strada will resign later this month, according to CNN. It was the second time this year the state could not carry out an execution: another inmate, Tony Carruthers, received a one-year stay after executioners struggled to find a vein, according to CNN.

Pike’s attorneys are asking a court to order the state to preserve evidence from the Sept. 30 attempt, with a hearing expected Wednesday, and are urging Lee to commute her sentence to life in prison without parole, according to CNN and Reuters. Tennessee has not said when, or whether, it will try to execute Pike again.

Reporting based on coverage by CNN and Reuters.